Crack Cocaine Addiction
Crack Cocaine is a stimulating drug, with potent, but brief effects. Stimulants temporarily speed up the processes of your mind and body. When Crack Cocaine is inhaled it reaches the brain very rapidly. The injected Crack Cocaine tends to be much stronger and more addictive than snorted powder Cocaine. Its initial effect is to release a large amount of dopamine, this is a brain chemical inducing feelings of euphoria, supreme confidence, insomnia and increased energy. When Crack Cocaine is dissolved and injected, the absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by smoking.
The high from using Crack Cocaine doesn’t last very long, in fact the effect lasts only for about ten minutes. A typical response among users is to have another hit of the drug; however, the levels of dopamine in the brain take a long time to replenish themselves, and each hit taken in rapid succession leads to increasingly less intense highs. It can be difficult to resist the craving and strong psychological dependence due to changes in the brain. When the effects start to wear off there can be a very strong temptation to take more, particularly with the long ‘come down’, the crash period can happen days later.
It is sadly documented and not uncommon that Crack Cocaine users have died from overdoses. In some instances, sudden death can occur on the first use of Cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest. Some users will frequently increase their doses to intensify and prolong the euphoric effects. While tolerance to the high can occur, users might also become more sensitive (sensitization) to Cocaine's anesthetic and convulsion effects, without increasing the dose taken: this increased sensitivity may explain some deaths occurring after apparently low doses of Cocaine.
The high doses can raise the body's temperature, causing convulsions and respiratory or heart failure. The risk of overdosing increases when mixed with heroin (known as speedballing) or alcohol; also it is a higher risk for anybody with high blood pressure or a heart condition. Perfectly healthy, young people can have a fit or heart attack after taking too much Crack Cocaine and they themselves may not know they have got a pre-existing heart condition. The use of Crack Cocaine a lot makes people feel depressed and run down, often giving flu like affects; furthermore there can be the development of anxiety and paranoia. It's a well known cause of panic attacks. Use of this drug in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, leads to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia. This can result in a full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the individual loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.
Large amounts intensify the user's high, but might also lead to bizarre, erratic, and violent behaviour, also this can induce tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia. Some users of Cocaine report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety.
The injecting of any drug can cause vein damage, ulcers and gangrene, particularly when dirty equipment is used, to use sharing of needles and other injecting works can cause the spread of HIV and hepatitis virus infections. It's easier to overdose if you’re injecting your Cocaine. Cocaine is a local anaesthetic and it deadens pain at the injection site. This makes it harder for users to notice the damage they may be doing.
Taking Crack Cocaine when you're pregnant can damage your baby. It may cause miscarriage, premature labour and low birth weight babies. Babies born to mothers who keep using throughout their pregnancy may experience a withdrawal syndrome after delivery. After the birth most of these children appear normal, this should not be over interpreted as indicating that there is no cause for concern. Using sophisticated technologies, scientists are now finding that exposure to Cocaine during fetal development may lead to subtle, yet significant, later deficits in some children, including deficits in some aspects of cognitive performance, information-processing, and attention to tasks, all of these abilities are important for success in school.
The problems do not end there, whilst withdrawing from this substance abuse there can also be an effect of delusional parasitosis, nicknamed ‘coke bugs’ the affected person would feel or believe they have parasites under their skin, The sensation along with delirium tremens, and can often be accompanied by visual hallucinations of insects. People experiencing these hallucinations might scratch themselves to the extent of serious skin damage and bleeding, especially when they are delirious.
The long term effects of Crack Cocaine even after months of abstaining, people who have used for a long time can have problems with memory, attention, problem solving, and use of words. They can also have problems with hand-eye coordination. Scans of the brain have shown decreases in size and loss of cells and loss of connections between cells even after abstinence. As for the paranoia and hallucinations some will have flashbacks for years. If a person has had complicated seizures while using Cocaine, there is the possibility of long-term brain damage. There is also the obvious that smoking Crack Cocaine causes a lung disease that appears similar to asthma.
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